Info Articles

Are you getting enough sleep? The National Sleep Foundation recommends a person should get between 7-9 hours of sleep every night for optimum health. In this hectic day and age, where time is money 40% of people actually get less than the recommended amount of sleep. Why is proper sleep necessary? Besides being a basic

Foam rolling aids in muscle recovery and releases muscle tightness after a workout. If you don’t have a foam roller, it’s a great investment as they are inexpensive and they contribute greatly to post-workout stretching and post-workout exercises. Your gym may have foam rollers for communal use, but foam rolling at home is a great practice to get into as well. Foam rolling is much less expensive than a deep-tissue sports massage, and yet the results are very similar. Working out causes small tears under the skin and in our muscles, and this can reduce our mobility and cause long-term damage if left untreated. Foam rolling helps treat this damage and helps to manipulate and massage the body parts that were just worked out, allowing your muscles to return to normal function faster. Foam rolling is also important for reducing soreness and boosting recovery. Lactic acid buildup in the muscles is caused by strenuous exercies, and can result in pain, cramps and soreness. The massage aspect of foam rolling helps to break down the lactic acid buildup. Here are some examples of what foam rolling is used for: 1. Massaging the calves If you sit on the floor and place your foam roller under your calves, you can use your arm strength to lift your butt up and roll the foam roller from knees to ankles, massaging your calves and helping to remove mini tears. This may hurt after exercising in a way that worked out your calves, but it also feels great and

Photo credit: thefitsproject.com Many women have a common goal in mind when they hit the gym: working out your glutes does more than just add a pleasant roundness to your derriere, though. Strong glutes improve your overall performance at the gym. You’ll be able to lift heavier weights, cycle harder and run faster if the largest muscle in the body, the gluteus maximus is nice and strong. 1. Squats with Dumbbells Photo credit: gettyimages.com Squat repetitions is one of the simplest yet most effective butt workouts out there. Squats are simple, yet powerful moves, and holding dumbbells while squatting simply adds more power to your squat, giving your butt the workout it deserves with guaranteed results. Here’s how you do it: · Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, with an 8 to 12 pound dumbbell in each hand at the sides of your thighs · Slowly squat down as if you are going to sit in a chair, keeping your chest up, your weight in your heels and your knees behind your toes. Lift dumbbells up for an added arm workout, or keep them by your thighs at your side – either way, the addition of dumbbells makes your glutes work harder. · Squeeze your glutes as you return to standing position · Do 25 reps a total of 2-5 times. 2. Walking Lunges with Dumbbells Photo credit: nataliamuntean.com This incredibly simple move will work out all of your butt muscles, and is highly effective in the derriere-enhancing department. Here’s how you do it: · Find a corner of the gym that

We all know that although all women may have been created equal, we're not all the same. Which workout is best depends on our lifestyle, needs, fitness level, goals, and tastes. We can't give you one best workout for women, but here are a number of awesome options for different women. Choose a few and see which you like best! Source: http://greatist.com/fitness/50-bodyweight-exercises-you-can-do-anywhere Best Workout for the Starving Student: Body Weight Training
This is the American College for Sports Medicine's top pick for 2015: old-fashioned body weight training. Lunges, planks, pull-ups, push-ups, squats; these exercises juxtapose the weight of your body against gravity to get your heart pumping by working your biggest muscles. You don't need any equipment so there's no outlay of money, and this kind of workout is really effective.
Best Workout for the Single Mom: High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
The number one problem for the single mom? No time. The number one workout solution for no time? HIIT programs! HIIT programs are incredibly powerful. They alternate short bursts of high-intensity activity with recovery periods. They are effective and popular. People are going to keep doing HIIT because it works, and it works in as little as a few insane minutes at a time.
Best Workout for the CEO: Hit the Gym With an Edge
CEOs and high-power executives seek out expertise to ensure that they have information and skill at hand as they need it; it's not surprising that they would seek out expert assistance at the gym, too. And the ACSM points out that

Sick of hearing about paleo and coconut oil? Feel free to change gears, because it's 2015 and there's a whole new crop of stuff that you're supposed to try if you want to lose weight, get fit, and experience your healthiest self. The real trick is balancing the trends with your own tastes, needs, lifestyle, and options: which ones do you think sound viable for you?
Superfoods Still Going Strong
It's hardly surprising, but dietitians and other nutrition experts say that superfoods are going to stay popular in 2015. Nuts, seeds, avocado, Greek yogurt, kale, and coconut products have been the top dogs of the superfood world and they are going to maintain their popularity.
Antioxidants
The health benefits of antioxidants will continue to keep them among the top choices for healthful eating, including for weight-loss. This is especially true of green tea and açai berry.
Old School
If you're sick of hearing about low-grain diets, good news: ancient grains like amaranth, freekah, quinoa, and spelt are making a comeback.
The Skinny On Fat
“Low-fat” diets aren't going to be the focus for many in 2015. What will matter for more people is focusing on what kinds of fats they are eating. Most nutrition experts agree that mono- and polyunsaturated fats are more healthful than saturated fats, and consumers are paying attention.
What's In There?
Label reading is becoming more common, in part because more people care about the issue of GMO foods, and there is considerable overlap between those who are concerned by GMOs and those who eat

It’s amazing what feeling good about your health, fitness and body image does for your self-esteem and self-confidence. Exercise greatly contributes to our overall wellness as it contributes to our physical health, but also our emotional health. It is much easier to feel good about yourself when you are working towards a particular goal. When you have a fitness goal in place, whether it’s a 2015 resolution or a sudden decision to get fit, and you stick to it, you will feel wonderful. When you begin to see results, and begin to witness yourself achieving that goal, your self-confidence sky rockets. Having a healthy self-confidence and high self-esteem benefits several sectors of your life: The workplace, your dating life, your emotional well-being, your career and your general sense of wellness. Self-confidence is key when it comes to moving up in your career. Being chosen for a promotion is often tied to your tenacity, as is being chosen for a new job. Prospective employers look for that confidence and healthy sense of self in a potential candidate. Therefore, rather than predicting your wellness will improve upon receiving a promotion at work, switch your mindset into understanding that improving your sense of wellness must come first. If you are single, you will also likely be more willing to put yourself out there in the dating world if you are feeling sexy and feeling good about your body. When you have low self-esteem caused by a poor body image, it is much more likely that you will

It looks like spinach has more super powers! See what a study done at Lund University showed about the benefits of spinach extract. Green leafy vegetables: more articles Thylakoid, a compound hidden away in spinach and other green leaves, slows down food digestion and therefore makes us feel fuller, according to research at Lund University in Sweden. A spinach extract high in thylakoids triggered a release of satiety hormones in the intestine, the researchers found. Eating spinach isn’t enough, however. It has to be crushed, filtrated and centrifuged, freeing the thylakoids from the plant’s cells, since our bodies can’t break it down from fresh spinach directly. The final product, a natural water extract, is different from many plant-based extracts that use organic solvents. Thylakoids are believed to slow down fat digestion, meaning the whole intestine has time to get involved. Once food enters the distal intestine, satiety hormones are released andsent up to the brain, telling us we are full. Modern, processed foods tend to only utilize the upper intestine, so the key hormones are not released. “I like to say our intestines are unemployed”, says Professor Charlotte Erlanson-Albertsson at Lund University, the researcher behind the findings. Professor Erlanson-Albertsson knew that if she found a way to slow down fat digestion, she could put our intestines back to work. Since she only dealt with synthetic molecules, she asked her husband, a scientist researching the photosynthesis, if there was a natural molecule that could trigger satiety. He steered her in the direction of thylakoids in green